Tough Jumble Spoiler – 12/30/19

Visual Description:  Urban fixtures?

MOSPT  =  STOMP,  NRIBE  =  BRINE,  ROSMYT  =  STORMY,  CANGLE  =  GLANCE   —   Giving us:  STPRINESTRLANE

Clue/Question:  The mimes had worked together for years and enjoyed being – – –

Answer:  SILENT PARTNERS

(Oh, sure.  NOW I get it!  But, when was the last time we saw a fourteen letter answer on a Monday?  Really!  The pun makes perfect sense, now that I see it.  But, boy, at first I was NOT seeing it.

First things first.  It is looking like we have a new clue word today, in “brine”.  The ralis95 clue word database goes from BRING to BRINY, but no “brine”.  So, there you go.  Two of the jumbles came up as new, but we’ve definitely seen “mospt” and “cangle” before.  The answer letter layout was an enormous fourteen letter jumble, which I thought did a super job of disguising the final answer.  My first thought was that the mimes were street performers, so the first word was going to be STREET.  But, I couldn’t make squat out of PNSRLNIA!  Then their shirts told me that maybe the first word was STRIPE, but that left me with NSTRLANE.  I could work with that, but the answer STRIPE LANTERNS just didn’t ring very punny.  Then I thought maybe the the second word was STRIPERS.  But, nothing can be made out of NTLANE!  I was about to throw in the towel, as I was beginning this post, when the answer just came to me.  I wasn’t even looking at the letters.  I had to check off the letters, one by one, to see that it was correct.  Now, guys.  PLEASE don’t tell me the answer was STRIPE LANTERNS!

Great cartoon of a couple of mimes, and a small crowd.  It was the woman’s comment that made me think the first word might be STREET!  I liked the tips hat on the ground, but it didn’t stand out that well because of all the feet.  I just hope that most of you had an easier time with this one than I did.  Be well and do good, friends.)   —   YUR

Images courtesy of Google